


Sweetest Devotion

by Zappy



Series: Mila Verse [8]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Armageddon Game, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Presumed character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 01:40:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11910549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zappy/pseuds/Zappy
Summary: The first times Julian and Garak cuddled with Mila.





	Sweetest Devotion

After his ill-advised night of getting drunk at Quark’s Julian made it a point to stay the entire night in his quarters, listening to Mila’s breathing. There was someone else living in his quarters, not just staying for a night or two but  _living_ there. With him. He knew it’d take a lot of time for him to get used to it, but at the same time knew that it’d be worth it. This was proven true three nights later when, during when he was reading her a story, Mila inched closer to him. **  
**

His eyes darted away from his PADD to her as she did so, but otherwise he didn’t react, not wanting to spook her. Julian had made it clear that he wasn’t expecting her to suddenly form a bond with him, that they’d both have to let the other in. But Mila liked him, and he adored her, so he didn’t worry about how long that might take. Mila tended to grip his pants when she was hiding from someone else, and she never flinched away from a hand on her head or guiding her shoulder.

But she’d never sought contact by herself. He had to bite his cheek to keep his pleased smile from forming on his face and making him look like a complete goof. As he set the PADD down at the end of the tale, he looked to Mila, who at this point was pressed against his arm and looking up at him. “Can you read it again?”

He let his smile show. “Again? Aren’t you tired?”

Mila shook her head with wide brown eyes, “Nu-uh. Please?”

Julian chuckled and risked putting an arm around her to bring her closer. To his relief she snuggled closer as he picked up the PADD once more. “Alright then, stardust. Once upon a time…”

An hour later, and Mila was curled up in his lap, sound asleep. He’d ended up reading the story two and a half more times, with her falling asleep part way through the third. Julian couldn’t tear his gaze away from her blissful little face. With aching care, he gently ran a finger along her ridges. She shuffled a bit at the disturbance and buried her face in his shirt. Well, he supposed he could withstand one evening on a too small bed. His back would hurt in the morning, but there was no way he was moving.

Wrapping his arms completely around her, he settled himself in as much as he could, and basked in the comfort and trust of his little girl.

* * *

Julian was dead. Those were the words that ran on a loop in his head. He’d force his thoughts to something else, but it’d come back. The suit still needed hemming, Julian was dead. He ought to move that dress to the front window, Julian was dead. There was a shipment he had to be ready for in three days, Julian was dead. **  
**

Mila needed someone to look after her because  _Julian was dead_.

Because of some stupid computer mistake, if the Commander was to be believed. An accident, that killed the good doctor without any warning. It was quick, painless, and final. Garak ought to be impressed by such a system. He couldn’t summon up much feeling at all.

After his rather bold and completely not thought out declaration to the Commander that he’d keep Mila until such a time her legal guardian could be arranged, he’d given the girl the hug she needed. Her sobbing finally wore her out, and she fell into a pained sleep under his work table. She shivered even with the fact he kept his shop at a warmer temperature than the rest of the station. With a moment of either insight or masochism, Garak grabbed the uniform shirt that Julian had asked him to mend the hole in, no point in that anymore because Julian was dead, and laid it across Mila’s curled up body.

It was just big enough to act as a small blanket. Her shivering stopped but it broke something in him he’d long thought shriveled and black. Attempting to turn his thoughts away didn’t work, but he held out through the motions of closing his shop early. It wasn’t like he got much business beyond the doctor anyway. He checked on Mila once more before retreating to his back room.

The moment the door was closed behind him, his steps faltered. Barely making it to his chair, he collapsed in it, bringing his hands to his face to stop their shaking. “He’s gone. Dead…from an accident of all… Why does it hurt so much…?” Garak dragged his hands down his face, trying to get his breathing back to normal. “Oh Elim, what have you done?”

It took him much longer than he’d care to admit to get his emotions under control, and even then it was only because he heard noises from the shop and realized Mila must have woken up. Leaving the sanctuary of his backroom, he found Mila clutching the shirt he’d put over her, crying once more.

She didn’t startle when he knelt down beside her, though he knew she hadn’t seen him coming. Instead, to his surprise, she flung herself at him, wrapping her arms as best she could around him and hiding her face in his shirt. With gentle care, Garak adjusted himself so he was sitting on the floor and pulled Mila into his lap. He couldn’t look away from the anguish on her face, and for a moment felt awe in how fast Julian could make someone care about him.

Then the pain hit him again and he sucked in a breath as his implant suddenly shifted the ache into endorphins. Somehow it didn’t seem enough. Garak laid his head atop Mila’s and held her close. He wondered who would really end up with the girl now, and if they’d do half as well a job as Julian had begun to do.

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to end it at Julian's first cuddle with Mila, make it nice and fluffy...but it seemed too short so you got Garak's too. And that just happened to be during Armageddon Game so...sorry but not really sorry.


End file.
